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October 24, 2010

I'd like you to meet someone

The other day, a very handsome if slightly disheveled man arrived at my door in a cardboard box.

Allow me to explain.

I've collected dolls all my life, and lately I've been very interested in finding Dickensian dolls. But there aren't a lot of those around, aside from Christmas Carol-type figurines. Some time ago, Nina pointed me toward a site, Angels Doll Studio, that featured repaints, which are just what they sound like: dolls that are repainted and costumed to resemble other characters. Laurie Lenz of Angels Doll Studio had once done a Lucie Manette doll; this emboldened me to ask her if she'd be interested in making me a Sydney Carton doll. She said she'd love to.

Now, you may have heard that repaints cost tons of money. I will say that Sydney was more expensive than any of my other dolls, but he wasn't even half as expensive as some of the repaints I've seen online. In fact, for a repaint with new hair and new costume, he was actually quite reasonable.

So anyway, he's here now, and you're probably wondering what he looks like! Patience, we'll get there -- but first I want to show you a little bit of the process that went into him. Because Laurie and costume designer Sherry Isenbarger of Sisen Designs were very interested in my ideas for him and sought my input all along the way, helping design him was great fun.

We started out, obviously, needing a male doll to turn into Sydney. Laurie sent me some photos of possibilities that she had on hand. (One of them was an Edward Cullen doll, which gave me a fit of the giggles. SPARKLY VAMPIRE CARTON! AIIIEEEE!) I settled on a doll from Tonner's "Sinister Circus" line. So Sydney began life looking like this:

No wonder he's got issues. I never would have guessed you could get a Sydney Carton out of this doll, but Laurie also showed me a photo of another doll that she'd made using the guy, and it turned out he cleaned up nicely.

In fact, once I saw it, I wanted that exact shade for Sydney's hair. So Laurie did a reroot, as it's called, on my doll, and broke three needles in the process. Hardheaded man, our Sydney. Also, I got to choose his eye color (brown) and whether he'd have facial hair (no).

My goal through all this was to stick to the book as closely as possible, rather than trying to make him look like one of the movie Sydney Cartons. When Sherry Isenbarger was brought on board at Laurie's recommendation -- and it was a piece of great good fortune that we got her, because she was about to start some classes and had just enough time beforehand to do this costume -- I sent her the passage from the chapter "The Game Made" where Dickens describes Sydney's riding coat and boots.

Sherry, who knows the period well, was a little dubious about the "white boots," suggesting that Dickens may have taken some license there. (Mr. Dickens, taking license? Imagine! ;-) ) She also pointed out that too much white or even off-white would make him look like a bridegroom in a white tux, which I certainly didn't want. We went over some fabrics . . .

. . . and settled on breeches and waistcoat in various shades of off-white, a white shirt, and light brown coat in suiting fabric. (The one at the far right was going to be his coat at first, but as it was so shiny, we decided that it was a little too fancy for Sydney -- who, as I remarked at one point, probably never put anywhere near as much thought into his clothes as we were doing! -- and would have made him look more like the Scarlet Pimpernel.)

For the boots, she sent me various shades of leather to look at.

We settled on cognac brown for the actual boots. (Sydney: "Did someone say cognac?" Me: "No.") For the cuffs, we went with burgundy. ("Did someone say burgundy?" "NO.") In the meantime, Laurie was doing Sydney's hair. Along with the reroot, she was putting a wave in it -- not too much of one, just enough so that it wouldn't be straight as a stick -- and giving him a haircut.

When costume and doll were ready, they dressed him in his shirt, breeches, waistcoat, and cravat -- one can hardly have an unclothed gentleman showing up at one's door! -- and sent him along. He arrived beautifully packaged, accompanied by cards from both of them and instructions for washing his clothes, should I ever need to do so.

I got his coat and boots on him and posed him for his official coming-home portrait, which he bore patiently, though tired from the journey.

He has his own page on Laurie's site, which is good, because as you can see, I'm not much of a photographer. She even posed him re-enacting the final scene of the book!

I tried to take a picture of him in my doll cabinet, but it has a glass front and mirrored back, which are hardly ideal for picture-taking. In this one he looks like he swallowed my bookcase. Still, it gives you an idea:

My original plan was to put Sydney with my other character dolls (three from My Fair Lady, two from Phantom of the Opera, and one from Breakfast at Tiffany's, plus a blonde Barbie who could almost pass for Lucie if her costume weren't from the wrong period!), but he was too tall. So he's on the top shelf with two gorgeous redheads, a tall brunette, and a Madame Alexander little-girl doll, but fear not, fellow romantics: I'm sure his heart still belongs to Lucie. He's hardly given the ladies the time of day.

But at least he has plenty of company if he wants it, and I'm pretty sure he didn't see the ("Sydney, look over there!" "What? Where?") liquor cabinet downstairs. And I'm keeping a careful eye on him to ensure that he doesn't. So all is well with Sydney, or as well as can be expected, and I'm very happy to be able to introduce him to you all! And many thanks to Laurie and Sherry for doing such a splendid job with him.

Comments

First of all, after all my AG prattling, WHY did you not tell me YOU collected dolls? That's great!

Secondly, this is so so awesome. I mean, seriously. I think I would have requested a bit of a 5 o'clock shadow on him, myself, but otherwise he's kind of perfect. And I love your liquor cabinet joke...can you buy little Tonner-doll-sized goblets? :P

Didn't I tell you I collected dolls? I thought I did. Whoops! :-) I do love all your doll posts, both the AG ones and the ones about the dolls that you make. And I really appreciate your helping me find Laurie's site!

Oh dear -- I hope there are no little goblets available. That's all he needs. I'll have to make sure he doesn't start doing searches for "doll-sized goblets" on Google!

I second what Selenia said; he's amazing!! I love his eyes, and his hairstyle! And yeah; who'd have thought that Sinister Circus character could become Sydney. :D That's really cool that you got to pick the fabrics, hair color, and stuff, too.

I wonder if Laurie Lenz would do Horatio Hornblower or Sherlock Holmes...

Gina, What a fabulous introduction for our Sydney! I laughed so hard that you wrote about the 3 reroot needles he broke. He was a hard headed man! LOL I'm so glad you are enjoying him! He was a great project to work on and an ever so inspiring character! Maybe he needs a Lucie now. :) In response to Marian's question...I'd LOVE to do a Horatio Hornblower, or Sherlock Holmes...or perhaps a Daniel Deronda. Hmmm....

Just thinking...another INCREDIBLE character-- and I read that Dickens himself said that this was his favorite literary work that he wrote-- was Nicholas Nickelby. If you haven't read this, I highly recommend it!

Hi Gina,
So happy to be on board for this fun project. It was the perfect break between classes! Oh, I would love to be part of that Sherlock Holmes project, should it ever come to pass. One of my favorite characters!
Wonderful blog, great fun reading it. Who knew that sinister guy could be a wonderful Sydney!

Wonderful creation. I would characterize Sydney's gaze as one of steely-eyed determination. It's perfect for somebody who is about to give his "sublime and prophetic" farewell address. Except for the little girl doll, the well dressed females surrounding him could easily be members of the French aristocracy waiting their turn on the guillotine. Move the little girl to another shelf, add a doll dressed as a poor seamstress, and pose Sydney with a comforting arm around the seamstress and the scene is complete.

Ooh I just love #23. He's so sexy. The doll is gorgeous, but not gorgeous enough to state the case. Where's the link where you order one? Did you see the 1984 BBC cartoon? That's me down there in the comments section throwing roses on the stage.